DZ Chapters 5-6
1. What was the chapter about?
The 5th chapter covered different strategies to get students to think constructively about their reading. These activities were sorted into categories of before reading, during reading, and after reading. There was also a section of tips for teaching vocabulary. The 6th chapter covered strategies for teaching from a textbook -- particularly ways to cover all the important material for a course without making students read every page in the book.
2. What does this chapter tell you about teaching students?
Students need help to organize information into ways that make sense to them and into ways which will help them remember. If you let (or tell) students read a text without guidance, then they may read the material, but they will rarely remember or understand the information, let alone be able to accurately summarize it and identify important concepts. You have to provide that guidance and structure for students, especially at the beginning.
3. Can this chapter be applied in your content area?
Yes. I don't currently use the textbook very often (except for generating Latin word lists and deciding which grammar concepts to cover and in which order) because the explanations and exercises are subpar, but my students do need to know how to translate and how to read informational texts about Roman culture and history. Those texts will require structure, particularly when translating.
BBR Chapter 1
1. What was the chapter about?
The (very short) chapter discussed why teaching reading is important for every subject and introduced the concept that every subject has a different type of reading which they need to teach to their students.
2. What does this chapter tell you about teaching students?
Just as there are different types of reading for the different subject matters, there are different skills involved in making sense of those different types of information. Students need to learn those skills before they can be expected to make sense of new types of information.
3. Can this chapter be applied in your content area?
Yes -- how many first-year students of Latin have ever translated something from one language into another before? (And "pig Latin" doesn't count as a language.) They may have read cultural or history articles before, but the majority have not translated, or even had to think about grammar in such a structured way. English grammar is so instinctive that students understand an English passage without needing to analyze its grammar to find the subject or direct object, but in Latin, students do need to do that.
Dear Anna,
ReplyDeleteYou are very clear and direct in your reflection; however, I am curious to know if you were to choose any of the different strategies for the before, during, and after reading sections which would you select, and why? Did you also get the impression that each of those categories main purpose was to build on prior knowledge, learn to organize your thoughts, and learn to reflect on what you read, respectively. I too do not use a textbook everyday because my students would not comprehend the explanations provided by the textbook, and i fully agree with you that despite my opinion about the textbook I use that the students need to be able to make sense of the textbook (or any book). This is a skill that all students should be required to learn during school. All in all, you blog post was an enjoyable read. Keep up the good work.